Oilfields Workers’ Trade Union (OWTU) President General Ancel Roget says the union has reached an agreement with the board of Petrotrin to divide the failing oil company into four entities.

However, up to late yesterday, union officials were awaiting an official document from Petrotrin stating that it had agreed to the OWTU proposal and that a joint-committee will be set up to oversee restructuring of the company. This was the outcome of a meeting between both parties at the Beaumont Hill Centre, Pointe-a-Pierre, earlier this week.

Ancel announced the agreement to workers outside Petrotrin’s Corporate Headquarters at Pointe-a-Pierre yesterday morning. He outlined organisational structures for four entities: Land, North and East (LNE), Trinmar Offshore Operations, Exploration and Production and the Augustus Long Hospital.

If the union gets its way, this structure will significantly reduce management position at the company with the exception of a president, vice presidents and some senior managers. Roget said instead of a corporate communications manager there will be senior public relations officers in all four entities.

“We put that towards them in a four-hour long presentation and they did not immediately agree,” he told the workers.

“They undertook to go study it and come back. When they came back two days ago, they did not respond properly to our proposal and at that point we said that if you are hell bent on taking instruction from the politicians, from Stuart Young and those people in the Cabinet and that instruction is counter to what we are about here, we will fight it out.

“We told them that it could be done in two ways. We could sit down and discuss it in a amicable and civil way or we could fight it out. After some discussions again on our proposals, they agreed that they would go with the four entities.”

The OWTU restructuring plan calls for each entity to be headed by a general manager who will report to a board of directors. Under the LNE general manager will be a manager of treasury and risk management, manager of production and operations, manager of finance and accounting, senior medical officer, legal advisor, chief security officer, manager of exploration and development and a head of custody and transfer.

The management at Trinmar will include a manager of production and operations, manager of finance and accounting, manager of administration overseeing human resource and public relations, legal advisor, head of health, safety and environment and senior medical officer.

Roget said the union is about trimming the fat—the excessive number of management positions in the current Petrotrin structure.

Petrotrin has established a transitional team to oversee the company’s operations. It is headed by chairman Wilfred Espinet and includes deputy chairman Reynold Adjodhasingh, director Anthony Chan Tack and former bpTT CEO Robert Riley.